plotly charts are described declaratively with objects in plotly.graph_objs and dict. Every aspect of a plotly chart (the colors, the grids, the data, and so on) has a corresponding key-value attribute in these objects. This page contains an extensive list of these attributes.

Plotly's graph description places attributes into two categories: traces (objects that describe a single series of data in a graph like Scatter or Heatmap) and layout attributes that apply to the rest of the chart, like the title, xaxis, or annotations).

Here is a simple example of a plotly chart inlined with links to each attribute's reference section.

import plotly
import plotly.plotly as py
import plotly.graph_objs as go

print plotly.__version__                # At least 1.8.6 is required. Upgrade with: $ pip install plotly --upgrade

data = [
    go.Scatter(                         # all "scatter" attributes: https://plot.ly/python/reference/#scatter
        x=[1, 2, 3],                    # more about "x":  /python/reference/#scatter-x
        y=[3, 1, 6],                    # more about "y":  /python/reference/#scatter-y
        marker=dict(                    # marker is an dict, marker keys: /python/reference/#scatter-marker
            color="rgb(16, 32, 77)"     # more about marker's "color": /python/reference/#scatter-marker-color
        )
    ),
    go.Bar(                         # all "bar" chart attributes: /python/reference/#bar
        x=[1, 2, 3],                # more about "x": /python/reference/#bar-x
        y=[3, 1, 6],                # /python/reference/#bar-y
        name="bar chart example"    # /python/reference/#bar-name
    )
]

layout = go.Layout(             # all "layout" attributes: /python/reference/#layout
    title="simple example",     # more about "layout's" "title": /python/reference/#layout-title
    xaxis=dict(                 # all "layout's" "xaxis" attributes: /python/reference/#layout-xaxis
        title="time"            # more about "layout's" "xaxis's" "title": /python/reference/#layout-xaxis-title
    ),
    annotations=[
        dict(                            # all "annotation" attributes: /python/reference/#layout-annotations
            text="simple annotation",    # /python/reference/#layout-annotations-text
            x=0,                         # /python/reference/#layout-annotations-x
            xref="paper",                # /python/reference/#layout-annotations-xref
            y=0,                         # /python/reference/#layout-annotations-y
            yref="paper"                 # /python/reference/#layout-annotations-yref
        )
    ]
)

figure = Figure(data=data, layout=layout)

py.plot(figure, filename='api-docs/reference-graph')